New Kid In Town?
by kellyhorse
Summary: A girl moves to Willow Creek and Rides at Pine Hollow. Should I continue story?
1. Chapter 1

**So, I realize this is very short, but it's really just a trial. If people like it, I'll continue. Please review, if you can suffer through this ^_-**

**~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` Chapter 1 `~`~`~`~`~`**

"I HATE THIS!" Lauren shouted at her father as she slammed her bedroom door. She screamed, collapsed face first onto her bed and started crying. 1 week. 7 days until they would be moving to Middle of Nowhere, Virginia.

A few moments later Lauren's mom opened up the door to the room and Lauren mooved as far away from her as she could, sliding onto the floor and adjusted herself to a sitting position in the corner. Her mom slowly sat on the other end of the bed.

"You know when I was little and we moved, your aunt locked herself in her room so long my dad finally broke the door to get her." She said.

Lauren turned her head up to look at her with a tear streaked face. "You told us that yesterday." She said, unimpressed, and went back to her sulking.

Her mom shrugged off Lauren's foul mood. "Willow Creek will be great!"

Lauren rolled her head back up to give her mom an exasperated look. "It's going to suck!" She yelled.

"Oh come on, it's only half an hour away from D.C." Her mom said, trying to reduce her daughter's foul attitude for the town. "We can go visit there on the weekends." Lauren's mood didn't seem to grow worst during the last few minutes, and it was definitely an improvement from the previous week. "And of course it snows in the winter. That'll be fun." Her mom continued, although it seemed to make the situation even worse.

Lauren started crying again. "It snows here!" Her voice cracked. It snowed there! -Even if it was one or two days a year. Lauren turned to the window to conceal what little she could of herself in that state. "And it'll probably be too cold there in the winter to ride." Lauren took a deep breath to calm herself. The thought helped- of not being able to ride at all when they moved. It didn't make her sad again; just extremely preoccupied with the though.

"But if you can't ride in the winter, Bear is going to miss you." Said her mom, trying to hide her smile.

Lauren laughed quietly to herself. Bear would most definitely not miss her. "Bear will miss me _now_." She joked half-heartedly.

Bear was a small black pony who lived at a girl scout camp where Lauren sometimes volunteered. He was about 13.2 hands and 7 years old, but his breed was unknown. They said it was a draft pony cross, but it had also been suggested he could be a Merens pony. Lauren had taken English hunter/jumper lessons for a little over 5 years, so could easily handle Bear, who was ridden by little kids who had never been on a horse before all the time. Although she was a great jumper, she had never tried it with Bear. She had never actually ever ridden Bear with a saddle.

"Well then, when we get there, he'll be waiting, so you'll have to go visit him right away." Her mom said grinning.

"Huh?" Lauren asked. She had pieced it together, but didn't want to be disappointed if she was wrong...

"He's yours now."

For some reason, now Lauren couldn't wait to move.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`Thanks…~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

**Alright guys, this is my first (real) fanfiction that I have put on this sight so please, feedback is greatly appreciated. I'll try to respond to reviews if your logged in (:  
>I never really appreciated reviews and reviewing until I wrote my own fic. They really are nice. You don't even have to log in. Just say one word like 'good' or flames are fine too…. Please tell me what I can improve on! <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-Chapter 2-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The last week of school flew by in a blur, with their freshman finals taking up what time Lauren wasn't using for packing. Call her a procrastinator, but Friday, the day before the moving van came, she was still putting the rest of her things into boxes. She had already had her going away 'get-together' with her friends. They just went to the movies and then walked over to the mall for an hour or so, nothing special. She had already said good bye to everyone else at school. Lauren had been touched- Someone had even brought a cake for them all to share during their lunch. It wasn't very good, but it was the thought that counted.

Tomorrow the van would come; they would fill it (hopefully in one day) and leave for Virginia.

That night she couldn't sleep, even with her new good-bye Build-A-Bear. How could she? She would be moving tomorrow. The fact that her room was completely empty and seemed unfamiliar didn't help much. Her phone's alarm was set for early the next morning so they could get going and help pack the things into the van. Bear would be sleeping happily in his normal home right then. They had hired someone to drive him there a few days after. It wasn't to too ridiculously expensive, and having him come after would save a lot of work and stress. It would also give Lauren time to get her horse supplies to the stable and have everything ready.

She woke up before her alarm the next morning. _Way_ before her alarm. Even though she only got a few hours of sleep she felt rested and ready to go, so finally, she decided to start her day. The moving van didn't arrive until almost 8 and Lauren was eager to get going and see her fat pony soon… Even if her arriving to her new home any earlier wouldn't let that happen. When they all finally left, one moving van extra than she planned (Apparently her parents were expecting this since the family before them in the van had extra things or something), it was late in the night but they were only about half way there.

Her family was in their hotel room, watching some cable channel they didn't normally get, and Lauren was rapidly typing on her laptop, "Who are you talking to?" her mom asked.

She finished writing a few more words, "They guy from the stables," She said, referring to Max Regnery, the man who owned Pine Hollow Stables, where they were going to be boarding her new pony. "He was telling me that kids there won't be getting out of school for almost a month still."

Everyone stared at her for a moment. A month? They knew that school in the South got out earlier than most other states, but a whole month? "Well that's too bad." She finally replied.

"Ehh." She shrugged. "He said I should come work there for extra lessons or something." Lauren said with excitement, "Exercise the horses. That would be fun."

She nodded. "But you'll already have Bear to ride, why would you need-"

Lauren cut her off, "But Bear's like three foot six," She said, using non-horsey terms so her mom would understand better, "If I wanted to jump anything more than a ground pole I'd probably need a different horse." She explained. Actually, Bear's previous owners said he was a good jumper but still, Lauren thought it would be nice to ride other horses sometimes. "I was looking at the website." She continued. "This place is huge! And Max said he's all ready for Bear. I get a place for a saddle and bridle and all that stuff, but he said it would have to be in the lesson horse's tack room since the other was full... But whatever." She closed her laptop after clicking 'send'. "We can go see it tomorrow, right?" She asked.

Her mom chuckled. "Maybe. Maybe. Let's see how this unpacking goes."

The next day they didn't go to the stables, but she was too busy with the excitement of setting up her things and organizing her room to care. Monday, she still hadn't finished, but sometime in the afternoon she asked her parents to bring her there.

"Later." They told her. She didn't want later. She wanted now. So, she rode her bike to Pine Hallow. Lauren almost couldn't believe it. Barely 15 minutes later she had arrived. She was very pleased with that time. Plus, it was an easy ride, no big hills or anything.

It was almost four when she got to the Stables, and a few cars were parked out front. She walked through the large open double barn doors, feeling slightly awkward. She didn't know anybody, had never been there before, didn't know what Max looked like, or anything really. She turned down to the right side of the horseshoe shaped barn, slowly walking by the horses stalls. There were lots of horses there; ponies, big boned warmbloods. A large variety. Suddenly she stopped at a stall. It was empty, with a gold nameplate on the front like all the others. 'Bear' it read. A smile crept onto her lips. Her horse. Her stall. It felt good to think it. Two more days and her little pony would be living there.

Lauren continued walking out into the back. She glanced back, seeing that in between the two sides of the barn there looked to be a large shavings pile along with some other wheelbarrows and a lot of pitchforks against the walls. She continued out farther from the barn and looked again. Facing the barn now, she could see on the right side there were a few cross ties for the horses and on the left a little ways away was a shed. She assumed it was for the hay and grain. Lauren continued forward, and to her right was a small round pen, ahead was a huge oval ring with jumps set up, and to the left was a covered arena with a few horses in it. One was trotting along the edge, another going over some of the low cross rails that were set up in a standard hunter course. A short grey pony was standing in the middle, its rider talking with a man. She could only assume it was Max.

Lauren felt even more out of place now. What if he would be mad that she showed up unannounced or something? There was a wooden table next to the fence and she walked to it and sat on the top to watch. It seemed to be a lesson that going on there, however disorganized it was. All of the students seemed pretty young- middle school age or so. The girl on the grey pony had started to go over a series of four jumps, two easy outside lines of about 7 strides (for the small pony) in between each. The girl went into two point way to early. If that pony would stop, she would go flying. The others were about her level it seemed, because they were all pretty quirky.

'That's what lessons are for though.' She thought. 'They would get better.'

Lauren watched the rest of the lesson until about four twenty five when Max told them all to walk and cool off. He came over to the fence near where she was sitting and asked, "Are you looking to take lessons here?"

"Oh! No. No, um," She stammered, "I'm Lauren, I own Bear."

"Ahh." He interrupted before she could continue, "Yes, yes. Nice to meet you! I'm Max Regnery." He told her as he walked out of the gate, "The owner of Pine Hallow."

"Nice to finally meet you." She shook his hand.

"You haven't been here before?" Lauren shook her head and looked at him in confusion. Of course she hadn't, what was he talking about? "Well my lesson is over. Do you want a little tour of the place?"

She nodded, "Yes please" she jumped up to go with him as he waved for her to follow.

Max led her towards the back end of the barn again, explaining along the way how the barn worked. "You remember I told you that we ask borders to clean their own stalls, to keep the costs down?"

Lauren nodded. "Mhhm."

"And of course, helping out the other riders." He continued.

"Of course." Lauren answered, slightly distracted by all of the new sights. What did he think she was though? A stuck up snob or something?

Max stopped at a stall. "And your horse's stall." He introduced it, "There's Comanche on the left, Theodore on the right. Both geldings so Bear should be just fine." Lauren couldn't help but stare. Both horses were at least 16 hands. Bear was 13.2. Max continued on to a tack room after a moment. "Now, this is normally our lesson horse's tack room, and I apologize, but there's no room in the one for our boarders for saddles and things anymore. So, you can have this spot here," Max showed her a spot for a bridle and saddle. "But there is plenty of floor space for a tack box in the other." He led her there and showed her some other things like the refrigerator for after lessons.

She nodded, "Alright, so-"

All of the sudden someone burst through the door, "Max, I can't get the martingale on!" the girl whined.

"Just a minute, Jessie." He turned back to Lauren. "I can find someone to show you the rest of the place if you want, or…"

"That," She replied enthusiastically, "Would be great!"

"Alright then, come on." He led the way out down the other side of the barn, away from Bear's stall, Jessie following. Max peered over one of the stall doors, "Stevie?" He asked.

A girl rose up from the other side of a dark black horse, having to stretch up to see them. "Yeah Max?"

Stevie looked a little bit younger than Lauren. Maybe 13 or so. "Will you give Lauren a tour of the place for me? I have to go help with something."

"No problem, just a sec." She grabbed a few brushes from the ledge on the window, and Max went off with the other girl.

"So what's your name?" Stevie asked her. She was struggling to widen her sliding stall door so she could leave when Lauren pushed it open for her.

"Lauren." She replied.

"So you gonna start riding here?" She asked eagerly.

"Well," Lauren started, "I just moved here and I'm bringing my new horse. He'll be here in 2 days."

"That's so cool! This is Belle," Stevie said as she closed the stall door. "She's my horse too."

"She's beautiful."

"Thanks." She responded "Here, come on. I'll show you the pastures." Stevie said and started walking. "Have you seen them?" Lauren shook her head. "So what's your horse like? How long have you had him?"

"Well, we just got him before we moved so…"She gave a quiet laugh. "I've only ridden him a few times. He used to work at a Girl Scout camp but he's… Um… He doesn't really like people" Lauren admitted to her, "so they sold him, and I bought him." Lauren explained.

"That's so neat. A Girl Scout camp?" Stevie stopped just outside of the barn and they turned towards a field. "So this is our biggest pasture, then those are some others. We usually have them all divided, geldings and mares." Stevie explained as they continued the tour, talking about their horses along the way.

Later that day Lauren practically skipped into her house. "I'm home!" She called out.

"How was it?" Her mom called from some other room. Lauren tried to go to her, weaving around boxes everywhere.

"Awesome!" She called, reaching the kitchen where her mom was putting away some dishes.

"You were gone a while." She stated, "What did you do?"

"Oh my gosh, that place is amazing. It's _so_ big and they even have an indoor arena for when it's really cold and big stalls and- So Max gave started to give me a tour but then," Lauren rambled, "He had to go so this other girl, her name is Stevie, showed me around." Lauren paused. "I'm starving. Did you buy more food or is it cereal for dinner?"

"We're going to go out. Why don't you grab Kelly and your dad and we can go?" Her mom suggested.

Lauren looked at her watch. It was almost seven thirty; no wonder she was hungry.

**Well, it's finally here. Chapter 2. Sorry it took so long, for whoever wanted to read it. Had a Very busy few months (I'm now a foreign exchange student!). Big adjustment, but I should have more time to write, and I'm in a motivated mood, with a few stories to work on. This is now my priority though, so a new chapter should be up in a week or two. Maybe longer... I wanted to revise this about twice as much as I did, but thought if I did again I would never stop!**

**Please please Please review! Criticism is Very welcome.**


	3. Chapter 3

On Tuesday, Lauren brought all of her horsey things to the barn. She set up her tack box so it was perfectly organized and would have everything she could possible dream of needing. Lauren got a little carried away at the tack store. She wasn't a big spender, normally, and never bought the more expensive brands at stores so she could save money, but Lauren knew she had a problem when she started buying neon blue polo wraps and bell boots (Well, she almost bought bell boots. She stopped herself before she could.), along with two different saddle pads (One was for shows, she reasoned with herself). She had almost felt guilty, spending her parents' money so carelessly, but when her mom saw the bill she demanded Lauren paid for some. Lauren was okay with that though, since she didn't have to feel guilty anymore, but she sure didn't feel happy about it either. And now all of her things were all set up in the tack room. The only things she didn't have were a saddle and bridle, and his halter plus a lead rope but those would be coming with her horse. Actually, she had bought another halter and lead rope earlier, so she had those set up at his stall too.

On Wednesday, at about 2 O'clock, Lauren's mom drove her to Pine Hollow. The trailer would be arriving soon, and she would Not be missing it. They pulled into the parking lot that had just two other cars in it, and Lauren led her mom to Bear's stall. She knew it was just a regular old stall, but she couldn't help feeling proud and excited about it. It was _her_ horses stall. Lauren talked to her mom for a moment as she led her there about Pine Hollow; some of the traditions Max had told her about, and of the one or two horses she had 'met'. Lauren saw the stable hand, Red, who she had gotten to know yesterday, a little ways away mucking out another horse's stall. He had seemed really nice, and he definitely knew his way around horses.

"Do you know where Max is?" She asked him.

He took one of his headphones out, "Last I saw of him he was in his office." He said.

"Thanks!" Lauren dragged her mother to the front of the barn, trying not to look to ridiculously excited. She could see through the dusty window that he was in there. Lauren nocked on the door an when she heard a 'Come in', entered with her mom.

"Is the trailer here?" He asked, looking out the window that showed a nice view to the front. He almost sounded more excited than Lauren, saying it the way you might ask 'Is the baby coming?' to an expecting mother.

"No, not yet… Max, this is my mom." She said, doing the regular introductions.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Heres." He said, and leaned over his desk to shake her hand before slumping back somewhat lazily in his chair. He opened his mouth to say something else but at that moment a noise started growing louder outside. They all looked out of the window to see the trailer pulling up the front drive way.

"He's here!" Lauren exclaimed, and slid out the door to meet the man who was getting out of his truck.

"Is this your pony?" He asked her.

"Mhhm" She confirmed, watching anxiously as the man undid the lock on the back. She could see Bear's black tail swishing lazily inside.

"He's been quite the little gentleman," Lauren smiled. "Didn't cause the least bit of trouble anywhere." He said.

The man swung the back doors open and Lauren slowly climbed in. "Good boy Bear." She said, half in praise, half to let him know she was there. She undid his lead rope and started backing him out. She looked up and saw her mom and Max watching. As Bear finally stepped off of the trailer, she could see a look of bewilderment on Max's face. Bear raised his head and whinnied to announce his arrival. He seemed ridiculously calm for just having driven for hours.

"When I first saw you here," Max started in disbelief, "I could easily picture you on a sixteen hand thoroughbred. But this… He's tiny!" He said, at a loss for better words. Lauren gave him an offended look and quickly reached to cover Bear's ears. He raised his head in surprise a bit when she jumped at him.

"Don't say that! He might hear you! He's very self-conscious about his height." She said, loud enough for them to hear. She took her hands off his head. "Besides, he's a very solid thirteen two!" She paused for a second. "Plus he's got very sturdy legs and a big barrel so my legs actually fit him pretty well. We don't look that bad together!" She tried defending herself. She was tall, he was short, but it really didn't look too bad when she rode him.

"If you say so." He chuckled. Max was a horse person. He could easily see that her legs wouldn't be dangling feet below his stomach like they might on an equally short horse of a more Arabian like breed.

Lauren led her pony to her mother. "Mom, meet Bear." She said. Mrs. Heres had never actually seen the little black pony. The only reason she knew about him was because of how Lauren never seemed to be able to stop talking about him. Unlike her daughter and Max, Mrs. Heres did not know much about horses and she was a bit worried. Bear was very small; would Lauren's weight be a bit much for him? She was nowhere near fat, much the opposite in fact, but he was small. Wouldn't it hurt him?

She covered up her worried look quickly. "Nice to meet you Bear." She played along, stroking his large neck. After a moment Lauren gently pulled on his lead and led him towards his stall. There were only a few horses in their stalls, and as their new stable mate walked up the isle they threw their heads over the door to meet him. Bear started straying a bit over to the closest one. Lauren let him say 'Hi' only for a moment before pulling his head away. She knew how horses were- one second they're best friends, meeting for the first time, the next, one decides the other's ear looks like a Twix bar and tried to take a bite or something. On the first day, she wasn't up to letting that happen.

She led him into the stall and took off his halter. He immediately went to check out what was in the feed bucket. Her mom looked into the stall, watching Bear, and Max came to her as Lauren came out and closed the door.

"So I remember you saying you would be willing to help out here this next month for lessons or something." Max stated.

"Yeah, I mean," Lauren said, "If everyone is still in school for a while and I've got nothing much to do… I'd love to!" She smiled.

"Great," Max replied.

Laurens mom came closer to the conversation, fumbling for something in her purse. "I need to get back home. Do you want to stay here?" She asked, and Lauren gave her somewhat of a little incredulous look. "Of course. Why'd I even asked?" She asked herself. She turned to Max. "Do you mind?"

"Of course not, you can start work now." He said cheerily.

"I'll see you later then," Lauren's mom said before leaving. "You have your phone, right?"

"Yeah, I'll call you when I'm ready." She said. Once her mom was a good distance away she turned to Max. "So what's this gonna' be like? I muck stalls all day and get a free lesson once a week or… What?"

"Well why don't we discuss that as we muck?" He asked. They each got a pitchfork and put a wheelbarrow in front of an empty stall and got to work. After a few stalls of talking, about her work and just the horses there too, it had been decided that Lauren would come every day if she could (But that was really just willingly, not because she had a job) starting tomorrow, she would clean stalls with Red, or while he did more 'manly' jobs, or other chores in the barn, maybe exercise a horse or two, and in return she would get 2 free lessons a week. Of course, she wouldn't have to work all day. She would have time to ride Bear and have lunch and stuff. She thought it was a great deal.

At about three thirty, Max announced he had a lesson he had to get ready for. Lauren took the opportunity to go get Bear from his stall.

"How are you doing?" She asked. He came over to the door. "My, aren't you friendly today." He stomped his hoof. "Or do you just want to move around a bit?" She asked. "Come on, let's go do something." Lauren threw on his halter and brought him out of his stall. She brought him out into the back, where Max was adjusting a few jumps' heights. She brought him into the indoor arena for the first stop on their little tour. She could see Max glance up once or twice to watch them.

Lauren led him around the arena, not knowing if he would have ever been inside a building like that and freak out or something. She was at the far end of the arena when she broke into a jog. "Come on Bear!" She encouraged, clucking to him. After a few slow steps, he started trotting with her. Lauren veered into the path of a cross rail that was left at the height from a previous day. She had never seen Bear jump before, but as they neared it his ears pricked up and his stride got a little prancier. She took the last few steps faster than before, letting his lead rope get longer and hoped over, looking back to see Bear pick up his feet at just the right time and hop over. She took another few steps and slowed, Bear following her example and stopping. "Good boy!" She praised, and rubbed his forelock.

After another moment, she led him into the ring where Max was and Asked, "Is there a pasture I can turn him out in? I mean, he's been in a trailer the last few days and-"

Max cut her off. "Sure, no problem. The forest." She looked at him blankly. "You know that one?" He pointed past the indoor arena to an empty pasture, a few horses in the ones on either side. "Try it out."

"Thanks Max." She said, and brought him to the gate of the large open space and brought him in. The second she took his halter off, she stepped back, expecting him to start running away to burn off his energy, but instead, he dropped his head and started eating the lush green grass. "You suck." She told him, giving him a tap on his flank with the lead rope. There wasn't any force behind it, she really just let it drop on him, but Bear jumped away. Lauren jumped back from him in surprise and Bear started trotting towards the adjacent fence. He raised his head high to smell the horses on the other side. Lauren slipped out and watched peacefully for a few minutes before walking back to the barn to muck more stalls…

**Well. Certainly took long enough to get up huh? I have the next one half way written (Woo hoo, just like last time…) So a month maybe?**

**Hate to do it, but I'm threatening. 2 reviews needed until I put the next chapter. If they come quickly, I swear I'll post the next chapter this week… Please tell me what to improve on! Flames welcome… Thanks for making it this far in the story, and to all my readers, you rock!**


	4. Chapter 4

On her way back to the barn, Lauren saw that there was a horse in the cross ties and a girl who was finishing brushing him. Another girl about the same age, 7 or 8, was leading a pony to them. Lauren could tell they weren't too advanced, at least in their taking up skills. One of the horses still had dust all over his back where the saddle would go, but the girl wasn't even trying to reach it. Continuously brushing the same place on his side was apparently good enough. She continued to the front of the barn, ready to continue mucking. As Lauren got to the front of the barn, she saw Max at his white board, talking to a girl. Maybe 10 years old at the most.

"Lauren," He called her over, "This is Molly," He introduced.

Lauren responded with a, "Hey" returned with a shy smile from the girl.

"This is her first lesson here and I was hoping you could help her tack up Dime for me." He said.

"I'd love to," Lauren answered.

Max nodded, "Alright then, Molly, go with Lauren here and I'll see you at the lesson, okay?"

Molly murmured something back that sounded like a 'Thanks' but Lauren couldn't tell. She gestured to follow her to the left side of the barn where she knew Dime lived.

"So you like horses, Molly?" She asked, making small talk. Molly gave an enthusiastic nod up and down. "Good. Well this here is Dime. And he's probably the nicest pony in this entire barn, alright? He'll take good care of you today." In truth, Lauren didn't know a thing about Dime except that he was grey, small, and male, but she was sure the encouragement couldn't hurt.

"Do you know what this is?" Lauren asked, picking up the halter on his door.

Molly shook her head. "No." She managed to say.

"This is called a halter, and we use it to bring the horses where we want to go." Lauren slipped in the stall and quickly brought Dime out. She stopped him in the isle facing Molly. "Say 'Hi', Dime." She told him. Dime stuck his nose out a little bit towards Molly to smell her. Molly grinned and backed away a bit, holding her hands behind her back. "He's not gonna bite," Lauren said. "He's just saying 'Hello'." She told Molly.

Slowly, Molly put her hand towards Dime and stroked his face. "Do you want to lead him to the cross ties?" She asked.

"How?" Molly asked.

"Come here," Lauren said, and Molly walked to where she was standing next to Dime. "Put your right hand here, under his nose on this thingy," She said, holding out the lead rope, "And hold the rest of it," she put the rest of the rope in Molly's other hand. "Here. Just look where you want to go and start walking." Lauren told her, and went to stand on the other side of Dime's head, with her hand on the halter, just in case. "When we get there," She pointed out the door, "We're going to go right." After they had walked a bit Lauren praised, "You're doing great!" answered by a huge grin from Molly..

"Lauren!" Max called suddenly.

"Stop here for a second." Lauren told Molly.

He walked quickly to them, "Can you also take photos of her this lesson? Her mom wasn't able to stay but wanted pictures." He handed her a blue camera.

"Yeah, sure." Lauren said, somewhat bothered that Molly's mom would miss her first horseback riding lesson. But she loved trying to be a photographer, and Max replied with a thanks and swiftly went back to whatever he was doing. Lauren went a few feet ahead of girl and pony and played paparazzi for a moment before they continued on. Lauren helped her put the pony in the cross ties were Max had already laid out the tack for all the horses like he did sometimes when he was in a good mood, or just wanted to do other work out of his office or jobs that didn't have to deal with manure.

There were brushes all around and Lauren grabbed some from a bucket. Lauren held the curry comb first and said, "See this?" and handed it to her. Molly took it and turned it in her hand, feeling the funny massage-like welts on it. "This is called a curry comb. You're going to use this to get all the big chunks of dirt off Dime." She explained. "And you see what shape it is?" She asked.

"A circle?" Molly replied.

"Yeah, exactly. So we're going to use it in a circular motion like this on him," She guided Molly's hand on Dime's barrel. "And were going to use all the way from here," She said, over exaggeratingly motioning near Dime's shoulder, "To way over here," she threw her arms towards Dime's flank. When Molly started she told her "He's looking shinier already.", even though she couldn't help but silently laugh to herself as Molly tenderly brushed Dime's side at a rate of about one light movement a minute. After Molly had done the same on the other side Lauren got two more brushes and held them out to Molly. "You feel these?" She asked, and Molly touched each. "How does this one feel?" She asked, holding out the denser of the two.

"Hard." She replied.

"Yeah, so what do you think it's called?" She said, using the exact routine for learning brushes as she had used at the Girl Scout camp where she used to volunteer at and work with kids Molly's age.

"Hard?"

Lauren smiled. "A hard brush, yeah. And this one?" She held up the soft brush.

"A soft brush?" She asked.

"Very good." She nodded in satisfaction, and briefly told her where to use each of the brushes on the horse, and to brush in the direction the hair goes. The necessary basics she needed to know. The rest she would learn with more experience. Hopefully she would learn to use a little more force when brushing them too, because with all the sweat and blood Molly was putting into it, Lauren had to discreetly go back and do a complete quick re-brush of Dime.

Next she brought out a hoof pick. She saw that the other girl in Molly's lesson was about to put the bridle on, and the other was just leaving, so to save time she didn't even offer for Molly to help. She showed her how to pick up his feet and as quickly as she could, finished all four hooves in just moments.

"So now, this, she took the saddle pad off of the rack and handed it to Molly. "This is a saddle pad. It makes it nice and comfy for Dime so when you're sitting on his back it doesn't hurt." –Well, for the most part. She watched as Molly put it on and then slid it up to his withers before reaching for the saddle. "Do you know what this is?" She asked.

"A saddle!" She said, excitedly.

"Ex-actly." She stated. She held it out for Molly to take, who struggled with it for a moment as she felt it's full weight. "Heavy, huh?"

Molly nodded as she worked to put it on Dime's back. "And the we just have the girth," She said, leading Molly to the other side. "You always start with the non-elastic side- that's this stuff," She showed her, "On the horse's right. Do you know how to put on a buckle?" Lauren asked, not in the 'Do you know-' sort of way but more playful.

"Of course." Molly smiled and said with a lively tone.

"Then if you'll put this one here," She said, holding the girth so it was in the right spot, through the saddle pad an on the right strap. Molly put the girth onto the first strap. "And here," She held the other buckle in place and Molly put it on. "Very nice. Now on the other side…" She trailed off as they walked back around. "And can you do that here too?" Lauren asked, holding the girth the same way as she did on the other side. "Now since this is like Dime's belt," She explained, "We don't want to have it loose. "Lauren walked back to the other side. "Because loose belts are no good, right? They'll just make your pants fall off. And we don't want this falling off." She tightened his girth on both sides. "Do we?"

Molly nodded 'No'.

"And so now, last we have this thingy." She took the bridle. "Do you know what this is?" She asked.

"Um, a bridle?" Molly guessed.

"Yep, and this?" She held up the bit. Molly shook her head 'No'. "This is a bit." Lauren said, starting to remove Dime's halter and putting the bridle on. "And these things attached to it?" She jiggled a rein with her hand after the bit was in his mouth, an started buckling straps.

"It's a um… a Ray… Umm…" She struggled.

"Rein. Yep." Lauren began buckling the straps. "And so when you pull on this right reign here," She demonstrated, "It tells Dime to go right. And when you pull left, Dime goes left." She told Molly with as little detail as needed for her first lesson. No doubt though, that she would be learning this in just a minute once she was in the ring. Lauren finished adjusting the throatlatch and so told Molly to put on her helmet since they were ready to go out.

As they began their short walk to the ring, Lauren noticed Dime's ears suddenly snap up along with his head.

"Come on, Dime." She coaxed. Dime didn't come, though. She saw his eyes roll showing white, and tried talking to him again. "Guuu-hhd boooy," soothed. All of the sudden he squealed and started backing up. Lauren took the lead rope from Molly's hand, letting Dime back up and have his space, but not completely letting go. When he stood still she took a few slow steps towards him, trying to calm him down along the way. When she was just a few feet away Dime reared up. Lauren tried to jump out of the way but before she was out of striking distance Dimes hoof caught her in a hard blow to the head.

Molly could instantly see a large gash near her temple even before she hit the hard ground with a loud 'thump', only to have Dime come back to all fours, spin, and gallop away, kicking Lauren again near her chest as he did so…

And that was the day Lauren died.

Yeah, well… I got tired of writing this. I am not motivated at all, and I find it uninteresting. I'm glad you all liked it, but I'm done.

Bear is a real pony, who does work at a girl scout camp. Everything about him in here is true so I'm not quite sure what his breed is, person who asked. Also to that, I haven't been to a barn where they outright said 'Don't let them say 'Hi'.' And at another they often do through the hay gates of their doors with a horse in the isle. Yes, I realize that's not normally good, and they often do get territorial or what not. But too late. It has been written.


End file.
